Best heatmap tools for a website: seven tools grouped by what they count, what their free plan allows and who they fit

Best heatmap tools for a website: start with what is free

A heatmap tool shows where visitors click and how far they scroll, and most also record sessions. The seven tools below each list that job on their own pages. Five of them list a free plan: Microsoft Clarity, Contentsquare, Plerdy, Mouseflow and Inspectlet. Lucky Orange and Crazy Egg list free trials only.

The tools count different things, so a free allowance in one is not the same size as in another. Every figure here was read from the vendor's pages on October 30, 2026, and plan amounts are left to those pages.

The shortlist: seven tools, what each counts and what is free

• Microsoft Clarity: a free service forever, according to its FAQ, with no traffic limits and no sampling. Data is kept up to 30 days. Heatmap types include click, scroll, area, conversion and attention maps, plus dead and rage clicks.
• Contentsquare (the Hotjar successor): counts monthly sessions. Free lists up to 200,000 sessions, one project and one month of data access, with replays captured for 5 percent of sessions up to a maximum. Growth starts with a 15-day trial.
• Plerdy: counts daily heatmap page views and a total of video sessions. Free lists 100 and 500, and a 14-day trial uses the Scale plan's limits.
• Mouseflow: counts monthly sessions. Free lists 500 a month, then Essential at 5,000, Advanced at 25,000 and Premium at 100,000, with a 14-day trial.
• Inspectlet: counts recorded sessions. Its free plan lists 2,500 sessions a month across up to 3 websites, with session replay, heatmaps and A/B testing.
• Lucky Orange: counts monthly sessions, from 3,500 on Build to 700,000 and up on Enterprise. It lists a 7-day free trial and all features on every plan.
• Crazy Egg: counts tracked pageviews and recordings, from 5,000 pageviews on Starter. It lists a 30-day free trial, annual billing and no overages: collection pauses at a limit until the 1st of the next month.

Criteria for choosing by site and traffic

• A tiny site with a few thousand visits a month: install one free tool first and give it a few weeks. See how to read a website heatmap for what to look at.
• A shop that needs funnels, error tracking and heatmaps together: check Plerdy's free plan and trial, then its pricing guide.
• A site that wants years of history or more than one project: read each plan's data retention, which runs from one month on free plans to 12 months or more on paid ones.
• A site with visitors in the EEA, UK or Switzerland: Microsoft Clarity's FAQ says explicit consent is required there, and its docs explain what is limited without it.

A worked example of three meters

Take a shop with 10,000 visits a month where each visit views three pages. This is an illustration, not a forecast. A monthly session meter counts 10,000. A tracked-pageview meter counts about 30,000. A daily page-view meter counts what lands on each day.

On those numbers Crazy Egg's smallest plan, at 5,000 tracked pageviews, would run out before the month ends, while a session-based plan sized near 10,000 would be close to its limit. Always convert your own traffic into the vendor's unit before comparing allowances.

Limits that apply to every tool here

• Heatmaps need enough views to be reliable. Contentsquare's guide advises at least 2,000 to 3,000 page views before drawing conclusions.
• Free plans often sample replays or limit retention, so check what is captured and for how long.
• Vendor claims about speed, results and customers are the vendors' own, in line with the FTC's endorsement guides.
• Overlapping tools such as pop-ups, A/B testing and SEO checkers are outside this shortlist.

Where Plerdy and Hotjar fit in the list

If you want one account that covers heatmaps, replays, funnels and errors, the Plerdy review shows where its limits start. If you remember Hotjar's free plan, Plerdy vs Hotjar explains the move to Contentsquare and compares the two meters.